Francis Tulip Quartet (aka Tulip Connection) @ Bar Tutsters, Bishop Auckland, August 10.

Francis Tulip (guitar), Joel Brown (keys), Michael Dunlop (bass), Matthew MacKellar (drums).

(Review by Steve T.)

The young lions of North East Jazz continue their triumphant run towards world domination. With less than a week to promote, the hordes were never going to turn out on a Thursday night in Bishop Auckland. Nevertheless, it was still pretty busy, including some local music luminaries and some local young musicians threatening to put their instruments on eBay.

Tutsters’ landlord, Mick McPherson, has tried his hand at Jazz before with a Tuesday night jam session featuring banjos, cornets, clarinets and, on occasion, a certain guitarist, so all credit to him for having a go.

Much of the Monk stuff featured at the Globe was stepped aside to make way for Wayne and Trane which the guitarist plans to feature with his Birmingham Conservatoire Quartet at Ushaw Jazz Festival in a couple of weeks’ time.

Central Park West from the album Coltrane Sound was a particular highlight, and Francis always illustrates his soulful side on this type of stuff, while Joel’s solo reminded me of McCoy Tyner’s sublime solo on My Favourite Things.

Just when you thought you were watching a band of seasoned professionals, they unleashed their, not altogether secret weapon, hidden around the corner from most of the punters, so I claimed my 'Matthew' seat for his first set solo.

Another secret weapon, Tony Eales, introduced the second set with his customary 'live jazz is good for you'.

More of the same but they'd now settled in with Francis coming to terms with his newly acquired arsenal of pedals, though still behind bass maestro Dunlop.

Matthew’s second set solo was even more impressive than the first; he's always had the chops but the language seems to have grown exponentially in recent times and I felt a pang of pride to have been witness to his growth.

I'd all but forgotten about Impressions, since it didn't feature at their Caff and Globe sets, so it was great to get a more structured rendition than the impromptu, brilliant, mess that blew the Caff jam session apart a while back.

A final Monk piece provided the encore but, like Matthew’s dad, and, I suspect, the landlord, they could have played all night for me.

He's keen to make this a regular thing, so with Mick Shoulder’s Friday lunchtime bash, a successful night at nearby Crook, Durham thriving and Darlo not far away, keep watching this space.

Steve T.